5’Oclock

I thought a brief history lesson would be fit for my first #cocktailhour.  Dating back to 1917, Clara Bell Walsh, one of the wealthiest women from the state of Kentucky initiated the trend for pre-dinner drinking, i.e. cocktail hour, creating an ambience for women to socialize in a new relaxed environment rather that the stiff and boring tea parties of that time. 

Circa 1937, James Beard, an aspiring actor, failed in Broadway, shifted his focus from acting to hospitality establishing one of the most popular joints in New York City, Hors d’Ouevre. The success of his bar led him to publish his first book, Hors D’Oeuvre and Canapes with a Key to the Cocktail Party, an instant classic, making Beard a culinary icon. Hors D’Oeuvres and canapés are synonymous with cocktail hour till today, with people serving a simple mix of nuts, crisps and olives, to a more lavish affair of fancy canapés and grazing boards. 

By the 1970s, on another continent, English writer Alec Waugh claimed that he invented the London cocktail party. Waugh insisted he had introduced the pre-dinner drink hour to the English as a solution to “…what to do on winter evenings between half-past five and seven.” 

Over the years, I grew to love pre-dinner get togethers.  Starting at 5:30 and lasting an hour or two meant that the mood was lifted, appetites were tantalized and conversations started flowing. It is the perfect escape from a long working day, and the perfect transition from work to play.